Robert Cox

Just thought I would throw out a couple of pictures showing the boat with her new dress. I think she look a little wider now. Maybe some vertical strips to make her look skinnier? Bob

Wayne and Phil, here is a picture of my solution to the beaching and keel wear problem. Living in Florida there a lot of sand beachs and rock beachs as well. Both are hard on your keel. I will do most of my sailing around the keys where there is a lot of sholow water. I didn't want to worry about what I was doing to the bottom of my keel when I beached at that out of the way sandy cove for lunch. Bob

Florin, that's why we all come here or one of the reasons. To get answers to questions we didn't ask and sometimes the one's we do. Sometimes the easiest answers are the toughest ones to come up with. The one thing I try to keep in mind is that the simpler it is the easier it will be to fix or the less likely it is to break down in the first place. Just glad I could help. Bob 8)

Joe, I saw that artical and thought the boat was nice. I had thought of something like that for the Vacationer or Weekender could be done, but I think you would have to make the keel deeper. The standard keel would work for the depth of the V frames but you would need extra keel below the V. The other problem with it is you would have to add balast. I think you would loose some to the stability of the boat because the bottom would no longer be flat. I would probably work with the experimental ballast bulbs though. On the design in the mag, the chines are used to help with the plaining of the boat as well. That's why the V doesn't go clear out to the chines but is short a couple of inches. I like the boat in the article so much that I've been toying with the idea of calling the designer to inquire about the cost for plans. Bob

What is probably the number one question a person asks or at least thinks about when considering one of these boats. How stabil is it? After all it's an unballisted boat. I'm sure the Stevensons had heard this question often by the time they made the video. So why not tape a Weekender shown being pushed to it's limits. Seeing the boat moving that fast and heeling that much is a good way to drive home the stability of the Weekender. "Whoa, you can heel that much and not capsize?" Point proven and sale made. Bob

Florin, just laminate another layer of 1/4 on top. I plan to laminate two pieces of 1/4" ply for the main hatch. It will be easier to form and should be as strong or stronger than one 1/2" piece of ply. Bob

Well Barry, your a wealth of information and I for one am glad your a member of this rad-tag group. All pirates to the end. Bob

Dave, I feel that having hatches capable of handling someone stepping on them a major requirement. Both the cabin roof and forepeak are areas you have to work on and it's just too easy to put a foot somewhere you didn't intend. As Barry said or experianced, you never know when you might loose your footing and land on a hatch. I guess better there than in the water. :shock: Barry, I was wondering what program your using to draw those nice diagrams on. They look like they came out of a book and you seem to draw them up so quickly. Is there something your not telling us? I know, your writing a book about building your weekender and these are the plates some high dollar artist drew up for you, right? Keep up the good work. Bob 8)

Dave, that's the first time I've checked out your site. You've got some interesting pictures there. Your hatch looks plenty sturdy. I think it should work out well. Looks like you could jump up and down on it with no problem. Oh, and your boat is looking good too. Bob

Barry, I want something that will last a while. I don't want it rubbing on the cabin roof wearing off the finish or wearing down the bottom of the hatch. I would also like to be able to stand on the hatch when it's done. I weigh 250 lbs. and I don't think the drawer rollers will handle that kind of weight. I've been thinking about this all week and haven't been able to come up with something I feel is usable. Somebody out there smarter than me has the answer. Bob

Phil, you do realize that 3/4" instead of the specified 1/4" would add a lot of weight don't you. (I take it your building a Weekender) Your adding weight to the stern of the boat, the place you don't want it. Bob

We're making good progress on Star Chaser now that we've got the deck fiberglassed and painted. I'm looking at building the sliding hatch and have hit a bit of a snag. We decided early on that we didn't like the handrails being used to hold the hatch down so I've moved the hand rails out where they will be usable. We like the way in which the hatch is built and the idea of the slides that the hatch uses. The problem now is figuring out how to keep the hatch down and keep it weather resistant. The look of the hatch system shown in the plans is very traditional except for the handrails and I would like to keep it looking tradiotional if at all possible. Any ideas of how the "big boys" do it? Or does anyone have access to a diagram or pictures showing how it's done? How do they hold the hatch down when using the slides? Bob

I found that the Stevensons left off a lot of deminsions that could have made understanding the plans a lot easier. As a draftsman, if I had deminsioned plans the way they did I would have been laughed at. If I had done it too often I probably would have been fired. No one on the plant floor would have been able to understand them, let alone the mistakes that would have been made. I do wonder if this was one way of personallizing their plans. Sort of like making a mistake on purpose so that if the plans where copied it would be obviouse. Bob

We used the 5 oz. cloth from Raka on Star Chaser and found that 3/8" really works best. You can get away with 1/4" but you have to be careful of how you work the epoxy into the cloth. I used a 3/8" radius on the chines and 1/2" on all the inside radiuses'. We used a 2 3/8" radius on the keel to bottom fillet. I used a 1/4" radius on the stern block and had a terrible time keeping the glass down. Save yourself the headach and plan on using at least 3/8" or larger radius. Bob

I personally don't see anything wrong with this topic. There are many of us here who love airplanes too. The B-24 and B-17 usually stop each year down here at Tamiami airport in Miami. They fly them almost every day giving rides. The best part is our warehouse is only a mile and a half off the end of the runway. I like sailing boats because of the lack of noise, but I love the old warplanes because of it. When the B-24 or B-17 take off it's a mini-earthquake. Have you ever seen a P-51 flyby at low level doing 300 kts. There is no sweeter sound than that old Merlin wound up. Bob

Thanks Frank, the more I use your site the more I like it. Bob

Hey Frank, I was wondering how much space each individual gallery has? Is there a limit to how much space (mega-bites) can be used by an individual? I've been posting my pictures on Sandbars but can't get more than 3mb which equals about 25-30 pictures. I've tried to cronical the building of a Vacationer with just one photo of each major step but can't do it with 3mb or 25 pictures. I've thought about paying for more space on MSN but can't seem to find out how much it costs and for what amount of space. If I could post 50-60 photos would be plenty since the vacationer is about done. Thanks Bob

Now Nelson, I take exception to that remark. I'm only 40! :twisted: Bob

There's a gentleman in Michigan that posts here every now and again that might chime in. He built his Weekender with a Marconi rig as well. Don't remember if it's fractional or not. I would guess it is. He's got a website. I'll have to try to find it so you can see what he's done with his boat. Bob

That's alright Simon, we know we're difficult. I must admit to looking at many designer websites for boat plans from overseas and have noticed that many offer their plans in both metric and imperial. I don't recall seeing plans offered by an american designer in metric. I'm sure there must be some but I've not seen them or don't remember seeing them. I guess we are a little difficult. I'm sure that one reason is the American designers are mostly trying to sell in America while the overseas designers are trying to fit their regional and American markets. Before deciding on the Vacationer, I was seriously considering the cuddy cabin catamaran offered by Mike Waller. If I had decided on Mike's design I would have built it using the metric system if necessary. Of course, if I remeber right, I think he offers his plans in imperial too. Bob 8)

Here's a good one for you Barry. Why do most car manufactures now measure engine displacement in Liters instead of cubic inches and yet we fill our fuel tanks in gallons rather than Liters? :? The old '73 Grand Am I had in High School had on Oldsmobile 400 cubic inch Rocket engine and said so right on the filter cover, yet on the hood intake it said 4.8 liters. Go figure. I think it's a government conspiracy to keep us all confused. Bob

Being someone that has delt with both metric and imperial I'll throw this out attcha'. My last job (before moving to Florida and working for myself) was setup and opperating CNC lathes and mills that made transmition parts for Honda and Saturn cars. My line made the automatic transmition clutch plates for Honda Civics and Accords. When dealing with something that has to be withing tollerances smaller than 1/1000th the metric system is better. We ran down to within 5 decameters. It's easier in this small of a measurement to use metric. When dealing with larger measurements, often times 1 centimeter is not small enough, not when you can work to within 1/64 from an average tape measure. Of course I will admit to having gotten used to dealing with imperial and have a hard time dealing with 1/10 ths of something bigger than 1/8 th. :? I have had to deal with the metric system on some larger work and have not had a problem if I had something to measure with that had the metric system on it. I have a metric ruller just for building R/C boats because so many are made in Japan and are measured in metric. It takes me a little while to get back into a metric mind set but it really doesn't take too long. Now that I've said all this, I see the advantages and disadvantages to both and personally, I would rather stick to imperial most of the time. BUT, if required, I can use the metric system and have no problem doing so. I guess I should count myself luck, I have and can use both. 8) Bob

I'm using latex paint. I'm borrowing a friends carport to fiberglass the boat and would like to paint it before I move it. He doesn't want to wait too much longer to get his carport back. If I can paint within two days after final epoxy coat he might let me finish the painting as well. We'll see. Currant plans is two coats of Behr acrylic latex enamel porch and deck paint and one coat of Interlux Interdeck for non skid. Thanks guys. Bob

We've almost got the top of the boat fiberglassed (just have the cockpit to go) and I've forgotten how long I should wait for the epoxy to cure out before painting. I'm using Raka epoxy with the 606 slow hardner. Anybody have any idea how long I should wait before painting? Bob